


Late Night Movie

by dorkpatroller



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling, M/M, horror movies on the couch, laslow thinks he's cute, mild horror i guess?, mostly just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 02:25:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9946028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkpatroller/pseuds/dorkpatroller
Summary: As it turns out, when Xander let Laslow choose the movie, he didn't anticipate he would pick something with such a dark plot.Xanlow Exchange 2017 Fill!





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fill for @ichthala on tumblr! The prompt was "One of them enjoys horror movies, the other is secretly (but obviously) terrified of them" and I sort of took it and ran with it a little but I hope you like it!

Laslow is beautiful. Xander watches him in all that he does. He has an old throw blanket his mother knit for him years back wrapped around his shoulders, and his eyes are glued to the television. The glow lights up his features. His lips hang open just slightly, like he’s mesmerized. His eyes are open wide like he isn’t tired but there are telltale bags beneath them that show he is exhausted. They are both exhausted. They have been the proud parents to their new infant son for only just over three weeks. Sleep is a rarity in their home.

 

But their son is tucked away safely in his crib. The only light in the living room besides the TV is the tiny green light that indicates the baby monitor is on, and he is sleeping soundly. Laslow has his legs curled up beneath him on the couch, and here or there he reaches out and takes a few pieces of popcorn from the bowl set between them. Laslow is beautiful but…

 

He is not a proper distraction from what is on the screen. Try as he might, Xander has had the worst time ignoring it. The movie is dark, cliché, overdone. A horror movie about a possession, it comes with the standard images of a woman’s body contorting and crawling along the walls and with a haunted house picking off the family inside one by one by one. It’s only just on Netflix, they happened upon it and hadn’t heard of it, so Laslow turned it on. Xander chose not to protest: this is the closest thing they’ve had to a date since they brought Siegbert home. The story itself isn’t much to be bothered by, but there is something about it that strikes Xander more than usual. Perhaps it is the way that the possessed woman’s child still tries to call for his mother, and trusts her. Perhaps it is the way the husband seems unconcerned with the fate of his wife, so long as he saves himself and his child, and the demon inside of her is destroyed?

 

Perhaps it is the fact that demon possession has never sat well with Xander, not since he was a boy. It is a subject that always makes his skin crawl. He is not sure if demons exist or if they can truly take the soul of a man from his body but he is certain that he would not be so quick to accept it if someone he loved were nothing but a demon possessed shell.

 

Thankfully, the man he loves is fine. Overly fascinated by a fictional movie, perhaps, but fine. Xander finds himself glancing away from him and at the screen again. In the movie the room is dark. The man has a flashlight but, as they always seem to in horror movies, the beam begins to flicker out into nothing. The lights (and subsequently, the screen) go dark. The sound of the man cursing and fumbling and then smacking his hand against the flashlight is the only noise on the screen. The music has stopped.

 

Xander has seen a film or two in his life, he knows exactly what is about to happen. The light flickers back on, the man looks up, and with a sound akin to a violin being played by a cat in heat, the face of the demon possessed woman is in front of him. The man screams. Xander only gasps. Laslow gasps too, but after. Perhaps in reaction to Xander. He peels his eyes from the screen and in a low voice he asks, “…Are you scared?”

 

“It startled me.” Xander says, and rolls his eyes. Of course he isn’t afraid of a silly movie. The way that these films are made they’re bound to make a man jump! Of course… the implication makes his cheeks flush. Laslow smiles and Xander finds himself looking away, back to the screen.

 

He thinks he can feel Laslow watching him, after that. A few moments later, while the movie is at its climax, Xander finds he cannot look away. It bothers him. This man is faced with the possibility of losing his wife forever. Is it better to let her body live on? No, it surely isn’t, but Xander finds it hard to imagine. He could never, would never, risk destroying Laslow’s body. Or would he, if it might save his life? He finds himself surrounded by the movie, he doesn’t hear Laslow set aside the bowl of popcorn or notice him shift—he doesn’t notice anything until he feels Laslow’s hand grasp onto his shoulder.

 

He is a grown man, but he thinks the noise that slips from his throat sounds close to one of their son’s cries. He clears his throat right after, turns to look at Laslow with his heart pounding against his chest so hard it might break free. Laslow looks… worried?

 

He reaches out to the other side of Xander, for the remote control. With a simple press of a button, the movie is paused. Xander realizes, belatedly, that he has been gripping tightly onto Laslow’s thigh since the moment he startled him. He lets go, and slowly pulls his hand back.

 

“We don’t have to finish the movie…” Laslow says. “You’re shaking, Xander.”

 

“Wh—I am not.” He clears his throat once more. Laslow dips his head to one side, but the shifts to crawl closer, until he’s nearly seated in Xander’s lap and he can pull his face downwards. Xander hesitates, but allows it, and their lips slot together just so in a sweet, calm kiss.

 

“What if we watched something else?” Laslow offers, despite Xander’s argument that he is fine. (He is not fine, he isn’t sure why he’s arguing, he truly appreciates his husband for seeing through it.) “Maybe that funny cartoon that Niles likes—with that man who owns the burger place? Something funny to get our minds off this.”

 

“Laslow.” Xander says, and he is talking to his husband who clearly is only doing this out of genuine concern, but it still comes out standoffish and stern.

 

“Yes, Xander?” Laslow asks. His gaze is unwavering. His lips are drawn into a tiny frown (a frown that has no business on his pretty face) but his eyes are easy to read. They always have been. He waits.

 

“Finish your movie.” Xander directs. He glances back at the paused screen, at the image of the woman screaming frozen into the television. “I am fine.”

 

Laslow is silent, a moment, but then he shifts. Where he was once just crawling over him, he now takes a seat in Xander’s lap. Xander isn’t sure what for, until he sees the screen change and the red menu pops up. Quite against Xander’s wishes, Laslow turns on the cartoon he mentioned before.

 

It’s colorful and the music is amusing and before the theme song of the cartoon has ended Xander feels as if a weight has been lifted off of him. Laslow settles in his lap and leans back against Xander’s chest… and Xander wraps his arms snugly around Laslow’s middle. He rests his forehead against Laslow’s shoulder. “That wasn’t necessary…”

 

“Horror movies never end the way you want them to,” Laslow says, like he is an authority on the subject. Perhaps he is, perhaps he is enthusiastic about scaring himself. Xander does not see the fun in it. “This one was a little unpleasant, even for me. I don’t want to see a little boy lose one of his parents, and I’m quite sure that’s where it was leading.”

 

Laslow molds himself back into Xander, until he is forced to shift and hook his chin over his shoulder. Then he makes a grab for his mother’s quilt and pulls it over both of them. “So let’s just pretend that movie ends nicely, that they all live happily ever after, and watch this cartoon instead, alright, love?”

 

He’s sweet, for pretending he wants to turn off the movie for his own sake and not for Xander. Xander squeezes him tighter until Laslow lets out a little ‘oof’ noise, and then he sighs out a relaxing breath.

 

“I love you, Laslow.” He says, a few minutes into the cartoon. Laslow blinks and tilts his head to look up over his shoulder at him. Then a smile spreads onto his lips, and he lowers his lashes when he nods so slightly.

 

“I am rather dashing,” he says. Xander tilts his head until his lips meet the skin of Laslow’s neck… and he blows a raspberry. Laslow jolts in protest, nearly knocks over the bowl of popcorn even! Luckily he reaches out to right it, and then sets it aside a little further from them.

 

Laslow seems to be distracted by the cartoon momentarily, enough to snicker even, but then he turns better and raises his hand to guide Xander’s face into a tiny kiss. His hand is warm, soft, very real. Demons in movies are not real. Laslow is real. Xander kisses him and then pecks him an extra time before he pulls himself back.

 

“I love you very much, Xander, so you _must_ understand why I couldn’t have you looking so miserable on our makeshift ‘date’. Everything’s going to be alright now, buttercup.” He closes one eye in a tired wink. “I’ll protect you from everything scary.”

 

That sounds very nice, actually. When Laslow settles in his lap once more, Xander looks at the screen and finds some amusement in it. He thinks if he holds Laslow like this, and watches cartoons to get the horror movie out of his mind, he can likely sleep soundly tonight. But… just to be safe, he is sure he will hold his husband a little closer than usual.

 

Or, at least, he plans to hold Laslow close in their bed. Instead, however, he finds himself asleep on the couch, curled tight around the man in his lap… and Laslow seems perfectly content to remain there, finish his popcorn, and pass the time with Xander snoring lightly into his shoulder.


End file.
